组句任务与造句任务在英语学习者词汇习得上的差异 The Diffrences between the Sentence Combining and Sentence Making Tasks in EFL Learners Vocabulary Acquisition开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

Introduction　　　In order to inform clearly why I will research the differences between the sentence combining and sentence making in EFL learners vocabulary acquisition, the section will be divided into four parts, namely research background, the significance of research, research purposes and the organization of research. Need for the studyVocabulary is the foundation of language. Countless words form phrases, sentences or discourses. Without words, we will not communicate with each other and record everything. Wilkins (1972) said that little could be expressed without grammar while nothing could be expressed at all without words. Lewis (1993) acknowledged that vocabulary acquisition to be the prime task of second language acquisition. He also thought that improvement of any language proficiency would not be possible without dependence on vocabulary. Those show the important of vocabulary to human beings.　　　However, vocabulary acquisition, as an important role in second language learning, has been bottleneck for English learners, especially in China. For example, most of Chinese English learners find that it is so difficult to recite new words that they cannot completely understand the meaning of texts and express themselves clearly and suitably. Therefore, find a better way to acquire vocabulary more effectively and quickly is of great importance for English learners to study well.　　　So far a number of researches have been conducted on EFL Learners vocabulary acquisition. However, few have been done on the relationship between the sentence combining and sentence making. So this research is necessary and beneficial for second language learning.1.2 Research purpose　　　The motivations for this research include three levels. The first level, the most simple and direct, is to provide the differences between the sentence combining and sentence making in EFL learners vocabulary learning. In the second one, the significance will be provided that the result from this study can help learners acquire vocabulary more effectively and improve their English ability. The last one serves as the teaching arrangement, which is most important and meaningful.1.3 The Organization of the ResearchThis research contains of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction of the whole paper including research background, the significance of research, research purposes and the organization of the research. Chapter two focus on the literature review. In chapter three, one of the two important parts, methodology will be dealt with. Chapter four, the other important part, provides the results and detailed discussion under the experiment. The last chapter serves as the conclusion of the research, major findings of this study, implications and suggestions for future study included.Literature reviewThis chapter begins with the definition of vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary learning strategies. Secondly, the theory of Involvement Load Hypothesis will be reviewed. The third part is devoted to reviewing some major researches on EFL learners vocabulary acquisition. Finally, the end of this chapter reveals some problems in previous studies.2.1 Involvement Load Hypothesis　　　In the involvement load hypothesis, Laufer and Hulstiji (2001) claim that retention of unfamiliar words is dependent upon the amount of involvement while processing these words. Involvement is considered to be motivational-cognitive construct, which has three elements: need, search, and evaluation. Need is the motivational, noncognitive dimension of involvement that exists for language learners when an unknown word is required to finish a given task. On the one hand, need is considered moderate when it is imposed by an external agent and strong when learners are intrinsically motivated. For instance, need is moderate in the case of a teacher asking for the use of a word in a sentence. On the other hand, need is strong when self-imposed by learners who look up the meaning of an unknown word in a dictionary while writing a composition.　　　Search and evaluation are referred to as the cognitive aspects of involvement; both require focusing on word forms and meaning. Search is referred to as the attempt to identify the meaning of an unknown word in a dictionary or by consulting a teacher. Search is absent when this attempt is not required, such as when an unknown words definition is glossed.　　　Evaluation is a decision-making process during tasks, such as a comparison of a given word with other meaning, or comparing the word with other words in order to assess whether a word (i.e., a form-meaning pair) dose or does not fit its context (Laufer 2) being familiar with the word but not knowing its meaning; 3) being able to give a corresponding translation of the word in ones mother tongue; 4) being able to use the word appropriately in a sentence; 5) being able to use the word in a both semantically and grammatically way. Channell (1988) stated I regard a second language word as having been acquired by a learner when its meaning can be recognized and understood rather than guessed both in and out of context and it can be used naturally and appropriately to situations. Jiang (2000) put forward that the most simple and narrowest definition of acquiring a word was the learner being able to recognize or recall the word or its meaning and that although this definition has not being explicitly accepted. It is said that one thousand readers have one thousand Hamlets. Though those researches have different expressions, they all share common opinion.2.2.2 The Strategy of Vocabulary Acquisition　　　Kojic-Sabo- Lightbown (1990) pointed out that effective vocabulary learning strategies not only helped acquire new words but also improve other language skills. In the past decades, more and more individuals pay much attention to vocabulary learning strategies. In order to enlarge vocabulary more effectively and quickly, a number of researchers have devoted themselves into the studies on strategies of vocabulary acquisition. 　　　In 1995, Ilka Stoffer divided vocabulary learning strategies into nine broad categories including 53 specific items. Later Gu Johnson (2003) put forward two major dimensions of vocabulary learning strategies: cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies. And they classified cognitive strategies into three types: premire process, consolidation and probation strategies.2.3 Related empirical studies With the considerably increasing attention given to vocabulary acquisition in the second language acquisition field, numerous relevant researches have ranged from studies on theories to empirical studies. In China, some relevant researches about sentence making in incidental vocabulary acquisition can be found.　　　An experimental research has been conducted by Xu Tao (2008) on the study of incidental vocabulary learning based upon the Involvement Load Hypothesis. Three tasks differing in their involvement load were designed and conducted. In terms of the Hypothesis, sentence making task was designed to induce the highest, sentence filling task the second highest and reading comprehension task the lowest. Then participants were given an unexpected vocabulary test after completing the tasks. The results showed that tasks with higher involvement load did not necessarily lead to significantly better gains of the target words. The result of the research could provide suggestions for design of vocabulary teaching.　　　Ye Shuimei (2014) has studied the effects of sentence making on second language vocabulary acquisition, which is closely related to my research. In her research, both of two classes, experimental class and compared class, had to take the integrated English course and were to learn the same required vocabulary of four units. The students from experimental class acquired vocabulary by making sentences with target words in addition to the traditional methods of vocabulary acquisition. After finishing the four units, all students from two classes were assigned to take a vocabulary test. This study showed that sentence making could produce positive effects on second vocabulary acquisition. Therefore, it suggested that teachers are supposed to pay more attention to the use of sentence making in class to help students improve the efficiency of vocabulary acquisition.　　　Yan Linyu (2011) carried out an empirical study on the effects of output tasks on Chinese EFL learners lexical learning. The three output tasks were arranged: 1) fill-in-the-blank task, 2) original sentence writing task, 3) text reconstruction task. 119 Chinese EFL learners were divided into three classes and participated in this study. The results indicated that the original sentence writing task shows superior learning effects over the other two tasks and the three output tasks have similar facilitative effects on receptive vocabulary. 　　　Another related research studied the effect of task-induced involvement and task type on incidental vocabulary acquisition by Chinese non-English majors (Liang Yalan, 2009). 120 non-English majors were randomly assigned to perform one of the three learning tasks (reading comprehension, reading comprehension plus fill-in, and sentence writing with the target words). Based on the findings of the research, the study provided that sentence writing is more efficient to acquire vocabulary, which is beneficial for teachers to arrange tasks.2.5 Limitations in the previous studies　　　In the past few decades, more and more researchers pay much attention to vocabulary acquisition and are devoted to much study. However, there are still exists some insufficiencies in the previous studies. Firstly, lots of researches focus on the importance of vocabulary acquisition and ignore the study of task types in EFL learners vocabulary acquisition. Second one is that researches tend to study the theory of vocabulary acquisition, lacking practical research.

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

Research Methodology3.1 Research Questions The present study investigates the differences between sentence making and sentence combining in EFL learners acquisition. This research is aimed to solve the following questions: 1. Is there any significance of sentence making in EFL learners acquisition? 2. Is there any significance of sentence combining in EFL learners acquisition? 3. Is there any significant difference between sentence making and sentence combining in EFL learners acquisition?3.2 Variables and Operational Definitions3.2.1 Sentence Combining Sentence Combining play a important role in this research. It means to combine the given words to a entire and proper sentence according to correct grammar and sentence meaning.3.2.2 Sentence Making Sentence making is another important element, which is make a comprehensive sentence including the given word. 3.3 Data Collection The subjects in this study were 54 sophomores of English learners who have same levels of English, coming from two classes of non-English majors in Nanjing Tech University.First of all, those learners require reading sentences, especially the bold difficult words among those sentences. After reading one sentence, they need to choose one of four options, namely A=entirely understanding the meaning of sentence, B=nearly understanding it, C=hardly understanding it and D=cannot understanding it. Then those English learners are divided into two groups, one group require combining sentence, the other require making sentence. When they finish this task, they all need do vocabulary test about above bold words. 3.4 Data Analysis This part mainly contains of three parts. The first part is to analyze the results of sentence reading; Analyzing the data of sentence making and sentence combining is the second part; the last part serves to analyze results of final vocabulary test. After gaining all the dataset that were used to research the differences between sentence combining and sentence making in EFL learners vocabulary acquisition, the researcher applies SPSS V17.0 to make two independent samples t-tests. Conclusion This research aims to explore the differences between sentence combining and sentence making in EFL learners vocabulary acquisition. The purpose of this part is to summarize the major findings in the current study and to provide both rgeoretical and pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions as well.　　The findings of the statistical analyses in Chapter three can be summarized two parts. First of all, there exists the differences between sentence combining and sentence making in EFL learners vocabulary acquisition. Then the significance of sentence making is stronger than that of sentence combining.